Report: Phillies Were Almost Buyers Last July

According to Deadspin, the Phillies were engaged in discussions with the Houston Astros last year in a deal that would have sent then-22-year old outfielder Aaron Altherr to the Astros for starting pitcher Bud Norris as late as July 22.

In case you didn’t remember, and I certainly didn’t, the Phillies were 49-50 on that date, 6.5 out.

The information comes from a leak from Houston’s internal scouting system, cleverly named “Ground Control”. The state-of-the-art tool apparently had a very easy password to figure out. The report also contains information that suggests the Astros could have acquired Giancarlo Stanton for George Springer and Carlos Correa in what would have been a swap of incredibly talented young players.

Analysis: Barely winning 70 games last season, the Phillies rarely looked like a team in contention. Why was Ruben Amaro even looking to acquire starting pitching that late in the season? Is this another example of a delusion that lives within the Phillies front office that they are always just one piece away?

And would Norris have added any value to the club? Norris was just 6-9 with a 3.93 ERA and wouldn’t have been a huge improvement over Jonathan Pettibone or Ethan Martin, particularly at a pro-rated $3 million salary with guaranteed arbitration raises in 2014 and 2015.

And what does this mean for the Phillies this year? At 6.5 games out, they were fancied by their front office as possible contenders. What is the threshold this year and has it already been met?

Much ado about nothing. Front offices are always engaged in trade talks whether they are buyers or sellers. In Alther, they weren’t going to trading away the farm, anyway.

I’ll note also that at the time, the Phils had lost Halladay, Pettibone was questionable, and Kendrick was pitching like a #6 starter. It was looking like they might need an arm just to finish the season, whether they wanted to or not.

George has it right. Any supposed deal discussion which never happened is not something to judge someone on. You talk deals all the time that never happen. Who knows exactly when this discussion started.

Suppose the Phillies went on a tear the last nine days of July and were only 3 games out. Then it makes sense huh? But when do you find out if a deal is doable? You have to know beforehand so you have discussions about what deal COULD be done and put in on the shelf.

Right now the Phils management is preparing for both buying and selling because they have to!

I glimpsed over the article Scotty. Just doesnt make sense. The fans arent going to keep going to watch a last place team anyways. We already saw a dip in attendance last year. This year as well and its just going to keep going downhill. PS…im not to high on Ethan he was an would of been worse than Bud..